The browser you are using requires Flash plugin to use current feature, please download and install latest version of Adobe flash plugin here.Alternatively you download the latest version of Google Chrome Browser here.

Sex, Drugs and Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency used to finance illegal activity

Close to half of all transactions made with Bitcoin are associated with the buying and selling of illegal goods.

Research from the University of Technology Sydney and Sydney University suggests that cryptocurrency is being misused.

One author of the report is Talis Putnins and he joins Ross Greenwood to shed light on how they managed to trace and identify illegal transactions financed with Bitcoin.

“We exploit the fact the transactions in Bitcoin are all publically available. The blockchain can be downloaded by anyone.

“We obtain a sample of some of the known illegal activity that’s been happening in Bitcoin, and we use that sample, that insight, of some of the illegal activity to estimate how much of the other Bitcoin activity is associated with illegal activity.”

The attraction of the Darknet is that it’s seemingly untraceable and beyond the regulatory oversight of authorities, but it’s Bitcoin’s publicly available blockchain which allows authorities to trace these illegal transactions.